ophiuchus

Ophiuchus (⛎) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">ɒ</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">f</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">i</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">ˈ</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">juː</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">k</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">ə</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">s</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/</a>) has sometimes been used in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_astrology" class="mw-redirect" title="Sidereal astrology">sidereal astrology</a> as a thirteenth <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign%28astrology%29" class="mw-redirect" title="Sign (astrology)">sign</a> in addition to the twelve signs of the tropical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac" title="Zodiac">Zodiac</a>, because <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28constellation%29" class="mw-redirect" title="Ophiuchus (constellation)">the eponymous constellation </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28constellation%29" class="mw-redirect" title="Ophiuchus (constellation)">Ophiuchus</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: Ὀφιοῦχος "Serpent-bearer") as defined by the 1930 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_boundaries" class="mw-redirect" title="Constellation boundaries">IAU constellation boundaries</a> is situated behind the sun from November 30 to December 18.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-1">[1]</a>

The idea appears to have originated in 1970 with Stephen Schmidt's suggestion of a 14-sign zodiac (also including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetus" title="Cetus">Cetus</a> as a sign). A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13-sign_zodiac" class="mw-redirect" title="13-sign zodiac">13-sign zodiac</a> has been suggested by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Berg_%28astrologer%29" title="Walter Berg (astrologer)">Walter Berg</a> and by Mark Yazaki in 1995, a suggestion that achieved some popularity in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a>, where Ophiuchus is known as Hebitsukai-Za (へびつかい座<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Installing_Japanese_character_sets" title="Help:Installing Japanese character sets">?</a>, "The Serpent Bearer").

In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_and_tropical_astrology" title="Sidereal and tropical astrology">sidereal and tropical astrology</a> (including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_sign_astrology" title="Sun sign astrology">sun sign astrology</a>) a 12-sign zodiac is used based on dividing the ecliptic into 12 equal parts rather than the IAU constellation boundaries. That is, astrological signs do not correspond to the constellations which are their namesakes, particularly not in the case of the tropical system where the divisions are fixed relative to the equinox, moving relative to the constellations.

<h2>History</h2>

Ophiuchus and some of the fixed stars in it were sometimes used by some astrologers in antiquity as extra-zodiacal indicators (i.e. astrologically significant celestial phenomena lying outside of the 12-sign zodiac proper). The constellation is described in the astrological poem of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Manilius" title="Marcus Manilius">Marcus Manilius</a>: the Astronomica, which is dated to around 10 AD. The poem describes how:

Ophiuchus holds apart the serpent which with its mighty spirals and twisted body encircles his own, so that he may untie its knots and back that winds in loops. But, bending its supple neck, the serpent looks back and returns: and the other's hands slide over the loosened coils. The struggle will last forever, since they wage it on level terms with equal powers".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus_%28astrology%29#cite_note-2">[2]</a>

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Later in his poem, Manilius describes the astrological influence of Ophiuchus, when the constellation is in its rising phase, as one which offers affinity with snakes and protection from poisons, saying "he renders the forms of snakes innocuous to those born under him. They will receive snakes into the folds of their flowing robes, and will exchange kisses with these poisonous monsters and suffer no harm".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-3">[3]</a> A later 4th century astrologer, known as Anonymous of 379, associated "the bright star of Ophiuchus", <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Ophiuchi" title="Alpha Ophiuchi">Ras Alhague</a> (α Ophiuchi), with doctors, healers or physicians (ἰατρῶν), which may have been because of the association between poisons and medicines.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-4">[4]</a>

Based on the 1930 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_boundaries" class="mw-redirect" title="Constellation boundaries">IAU constellation boundaries</a>, suggestions that "there are really 13 astrological signs" because "the Sun is in the sign of Ophiuchus" between November 29 and December 17 have been published since at least the 1970s.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus_%28astrology%29#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

In 1970, Stephen Schmidt in his Astrology 14 advocated a 14-sign zodiac, introducing Ophiuchus (December 6 to December 31) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetus" title="Cetus">Cetus</a> (May 12 to June 6) as new signs.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-6">[6]</a> Within 20th-century <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_astrology" class="mw-redirect" title="Sidereal astrology">sidereal astrology</a>, the idea was taken up by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Berg%28astrologer%29" title="Walter Berg (astrologer)">Walter Berg</a> in his The 13 Signs of the Zodiac (1995). Berg's The 13 Signs of the Zodiac was published in Japan in 1996 and became a bestseller, and Berg's system has since been comparatively widespread in Japanese pop culture, appearing for example in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy" title="Final Fantasy">Final Fantasy</a> video game series and the manga and anime series <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Tail" title="Fairy Tail">Fairy Tail</a>.

In January 2011, a statement by Parke Kunkle of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Planetarium_Society" class="mw-redirect" title="Minnesota Planetarium Society">Minnesota Planetarium Society</a> repeating the idea of "the 13th zodiac sign Ophiuchus" made some headlines in the popular press.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-7">[7]</a> However, Kunkle is an astronomer, not an astrologer.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus%28astrology%29#cite_note-8">[8]</a>

<h2>References</h2>

</ol>

<ul>

<li id="cite_note-1"><cite class="citation web">McClure, Bruce. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://earthsky.org/tonight/sun-in-ophiuchus-december-1-to-december-18">"Sun in constellation Ophiuchus November 30 to December 18"</a>. Earthsky Communications Inc. Retrieved 2013-09-16.</cite></li>

<li id="cite_note-2">Manilius, Astronomica, I.333ff.</li>

<li id="cite_note-3">Manilius, Astronomica, V.389ff.</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Cumont" title="Franz Cumont">Franz Cumont</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boll_%28philologist%29" title="Franz Boll (philologist)">Franz Boll</a>, Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, Vol. 5, part 1, Brussels, 1904, pg. 210.</li>

<li id="cite_note-5">Lee T. Shapiro, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/realconstellations_zodiac.html">The Real Constellations of the Zodiac</a>, Planetarian, Spring 1977. Because of the tilt of the planes of the planets' paths relative to Earth's (the ecliptic), the planets actually pass through a number of other constellations as well, as was observed by John Mosely in <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/realrealconstellations.html">The Real, Real Constellations of the Zodiac</a>, Planetarian, Vol. 28, #4, December 1999.</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943321,00.html">Modern Living: The Revised Zodiac</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine" class="mw-redirect" title="Time Magazine">Time Magazine</a>, 23 November 1970.</li>

<li id="cite_note-7">Howard Chua-Eoan, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2042520,00.html">Welcome to the Zodiac, Ophiuchus. But Who Are You?</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine" class="mw-redirect" title="Time Magazine">Time Magazine</a>, 14 January 2011; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/101392/20110115/ophiuchus-an-old-hoax-zodiac-sign-13th-kunkle-astrology-astronomers-astrologers-tropical-zodiac-side.htm">New zodiac sign Ophiuchus is an old hoax: Astrologers strike back</a>, International Business Times, 15 January 2011.</li>

<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://io9.com/5733004/your-zodiac-sign-may-have-changed-this-week">Why did your zodiac sign change? We asked the astronomer who started it all</a></ul>

ophiuchus

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